Makers gotta make

It's been almost a year since I posted so I don't know if anyone will care but here are a few of the things I've been making this year. There was felt, polymer clay, sterling silver, copper enamel and collage. I tried laser cutting, beading and knitting hand warmers. I still have a love affair with paper, printing and linoleum prints. So many ideas and so little time.

Japanese seed beads, with brass and gold highlights.

 Detail of a beaded necklace

African glass, brass and leather necklace 

 Textured enamel earrings

 needle felted brooch

Two needle felted, beaded and embroidered brooches.

 Polymer clay beads

Sterling silver forged cuff

Playing with enamel in the jewelry studio

With some time off from my day job I've been able to get back into the studio and play with enamels. I'm using a little kiln that my studio mate bought and it is small but mighty. Here are some of my results with enamel and texture.  All of these are for sale on my Etsy webpage.https://www.etsy.com/shop/artnestbydiane

Making metal houses

I just finished up another metals class. I ended up  with the theme of houses and home. Here are a few things from the studio today. I'll be selling them in my etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop/artnestbydiane

Love-ly Jewelry for your Valentine

I've been making enameled hearts for Valentines Day to sell in my Etsy shop. Here is a link to one of them:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/artnestbydiane?ref=si_shop
https://www.etsy.com/listing/178717679/red-enamel-heart-necklace?

Enameling Metal Jewelry

I've been taking metalsmithing classes for the last year. I started with metal about 15 years ago and then stopped when I started working full time. This last year I haven't been working as much which has been a gift in many ways; one if those ways is more time to work on my art.

The current class I'm taking is an Enameling. Enameling a process where ground glass is fused to copper or silver when heated at high temperatures (1500 degrees). You can heat the metal in a kiln or through a process called torch firing where you apply the flame from a torch underneath the metal until the glass melts and fuses to the the copper or silver.

I am in love with enameling! I love color and experimenting with transparent and opaque enamels is so much fun. I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get because the powdered enamel colors look very different than the heated and cooled enamel. Here are a few recent samples I made.